Big Change in the Big Metros

From plutocrat to populist: after 12 years under billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, New Yorkers turned sharply left, electing the city's liberal public advocate, Bill de Blasio, by massive margins over Republican Joe Lhota. The vote suggests a backlash against the superrich and a new dawn of Democratic urban populism. An underdog in the primaries, de Blasio ran TV ads featuring his biracial family and challenged Bloomberg's legacy by opposing police profiling while vowing to raise taxes on the wealthy, which the outgoing mayor says would drive the biggest taxpayers away. But it's not Bloomberg's New York anymore.